Reopening the Wells: Legacy of Lake's Healing Rooms

SPOKANE, Wash. - Part of the history of healing in America can be traced to John G. Lake, a leader of the Pentecostal movement in the 20th century.

Lake had a vibrant healing ministry at the turn of the century. Today, his legacy lives on with the re-opening of the "healing rooms."

Healthiest City in the World

At age 16, John G. Lake gave his life to Christ during a Salvation Army revival meeting. As a young adult, he moved to South Africa and began a powerful miracle ministry.

In 1914, Lake returned to the United States and settled down in Spokane, Washington. There he opened up the "healing rooms," a place where people could pray and seek God.

During the next five years, his ministry documented more than 100,000 healings.

Spokane became known not only as the healthiest city in America, but the healthiest city in the world.

'Reopening the Wells'

"John G. Lake was a man who had hunger for God, hunger for the truth, the Word, and out of that Word, he'd come to the discovery that God wasn't just able to heal, but He was willing to heal," Cal Pierce, director of Healing Rooms Ministries, said.

In the mid 1990s, Pierce was a California real estate developer preparing for retirement. But he said after much prayer and fasting, God showed him another plan for his life.

"Finally at the end of the fast, the Holy Spirit could get into my spirit and He said, 'I want you to re-dig those generational wells of healing that John G. Lake had in Spokane, re-open that well after 80 years,' Pierce said. "And that's what we did."

Lake's healing rooms had closed in 1935 after his death. But Pierce purchased the original property, re-opened the rooms, and eventually relocated to another area of the city.

The ministry then expanded to the point where it now takes up an entire block of downtown Spokane.

"Healing rooms is an international ministry and it activates the saints of God into the work of the ministry," Pierce said. "And the purpose is to get the body of Christ, or God's people, healed and restored."

In Search of Healing

In the Healing Rooms Hallway in Spokane, there are eight healing rooms. You've got the "Fire Room," the "Portal Room," the "Waves of Glory Room," and many others.

People come from all over the world and here in America, specifically to Spokane, looking for healing and God's touch.

The healing rooms are open five days a week and anyone needing prayer can come, no appointment necessary. You just show up and sign in and staff members are on standby ready to pray.

There's also the "Glory Room." This is where intercessors worship before praying for the needs of the people, people like Joshua Cox.

Cox has been coming here for the past year.

"I can only explain it like I get (hit) by Holy Spirit mack trucks every single time I come here. You know God meets me here," Cox said. "I always ask for a special word. I always ask for something that is going to be precise and what I need; He always delivers it to me."

Healing for the Nations

Pierce's vision for the healing rooms goes way beyond Spokane. He wants to minister to the nations.

In the "Strategy Room" at the Spokane location, people pray for the healing of the nations.

"You know, sometimes, we'll have people ask us, 'Well, should we have a healing room in our community?'" Pierce said. "And I always answer the same way, 'Do you have any sick people there?' Where you have sick people you need healing and healing rooms."

Pierce believes we're living in what he calls the Isaiah 60 Generation where darkness covers the earth, but he says he also takes comfort in knowing how this story ends.

"I want to see these warriors rise into their destiny and begin to realize that we have the authority, the power and the dominion to take back what the enemy has stolen. I've read the last chapter. We win," Pierce said. "But we've got to realize God calls us an overcomer. That means we have to have something to overcome."